Preview — The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
by Bertolt Brecht

The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui

In this savage and witty parable written in exile in 1941, Brecht recasts the rise of Hitler as a small-time Chicago gangster's takeover of the city's greengrocery trade. This prizewinning translation by Ralph Manheim skilfully captures the wide range of parody and pastiche in the original - from Richard III to Al Capone, from Mark Antony to Faust - without diminishing theIn this savage and witty parable written in exile in 1941, Brecht recasts the rise of Hitler as a small-time Chicago gangster's takeover of the city's greengrocery trade. This prizewinning translation by Ralph Manheim skilfully captures the wide range of parody and pastiche in the original - from Richard III to Al Capone, from Mark Antony to Faust - without diminishing the horror of the real-life Nazi prototypes....more

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“Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.” --Brecht

1. Trump claims because he is famous he has premier access to any woman he wants; he can just grab her pussy or whatever he wants.2. Several women from his past claim sexual harassment.3. Trump denies all claims of above and commits to defund Planned Parenthood and other organizations devoted to women’s equality, at the same time claiming he “loves all women, and they loveThe Resistible Rise of Fascism in 2017

“Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.” --Brecht

1. Trump claims because he is famous he has premier access to any woman he wants; he can just grab her pussy or whatever he wants.2. Several women from his past claim sexual harassment.3. Trump denies all claims of above and commits to defund Planned Parenthood and other organizations devoted to women’s equality, at the same time claiming he “loves all women, and they love me.”4. Trump elected President (with a majority of white women voting for him, confirming for him and some others his claim in #3)5. In his Inaugural address he mentions his desire to unify the country.6. The next day 2.9 million women from around the planet protest his election, proving his claim in #5.7. Trump’s own tiny hands count more people at his Inauguration than any other one in history, and when there is widespread media pushback on this claim forces WH mouthpiece Sean Spicer to assert this as one of his increasingly prevalent “alternate facts.”8. Massive ridicule in response to such claims from the media and various women’s groups.9. Trump doubles down on his vow to defund Planned Parenthood and vows to define organizations dedicated to the prevention of violence against women. The new Republican Senate votes 51-48 to remove discrimination protection for women in healthcare and against ACA contraceptive coverage and maternity care provision. And this is just one part of what he did in the first week!

I first saw a production of this play in—I think—1979 in Williamsburg, MA, a summer stock production, and I knew nothing about it. I was not at all worried at the time about the rise of fascism in this country, which was exactly Brecht’s point, that in the tradition of Sinclair Lewis’s It Can’t Happen Here, everyone smugly believed Hitler couldn’t happen here. The production was consistent with Brecht’s approach: Don’t let the audience sit back and treat this as a comfortable entertaining night out at the theatre. This “play” is for him about political realities we have faced globally many times and allowed to happen: The rise of fascism. But in this play, a darkly hilarious black comedy, we see cheap, crude and inarticulate gangster Arturo Ui not living in some “exotic” location like Germany (!) or Italy or Russia, but living in Chicago, in the 1930’s, as a Hitlerian character intent on taking over the city and country. Ridiculous little buffoon, who does he think he is?! It’s laughable that he would ever want to be president! He’s a joke!

In the Williamsburg production, the set was form the outset multicolored, as one might expect a set to be, but throughout the play as gangster crimes of robbery and murder and extortion increased, painters were gradually whitewashing the set until every inch was white. The effect was visually electrifying. And to remind us that the comedy we were watching was specifically tied to the rise of Hitler’s Third Reich, placards accompanied each scene to show the parallels.

Now, Hitler wasn’t a gangster, exactly. No one initially took him seriously at all, until socio-economic conditions helped him argue that it was time to Make Germany Great Again. Ui, as the proto-fascist of this drama, works hard to get popular, against all odds; he takes elocution lessons, acting lessons, and his coach helps him ape Shakespearean language and tones so that he can sweet talk his way into strong-arming the city until he corners the cauliflower market. There are terrific echoes of Richard III and Macbeth in this play.

At the conclusion of the play the actor playing Ui ran down to the edge of the play, ripping off his moustache, addressing the audience directly, telling his (actual) name, told us he was an actor; hey, talk about “breaking the plane” of the understood separation between audience and stage! Precisely as Brecht would have wanted, we who saw that play went out and talked about the issues in the “play” as it pertained to the old US of A. We agreed that Brecht was decidedly not merely “play”-ing around with political realities.

What would it be like to see such a production, now, today, in January 2017, with a new USA President with his powerful billionaire corporate cabinet backing him?

“If we could learn to look instead of gawking,We'd see the horror in the heart of farce,If only we could act instead of talking,We wouldn't always end up on our arse.This was the thing that nearly had us mastered;Don't yet rejoice in his defeat, you men!Although the world stood up and stopped the bastard,The bitch that bore him is in heat again.”--Brecht...more

Not and I have this long-running argument about translations. In nearly every case, I think it's better to read the original, even if my knowledge of the source language isn't particularly good: it means I'm hearing what the author actually said, as opposed to what the translator thought they said. Not disagrees, but I find her arguments unconvincing.

Or, to be more exact, I find her arguments unconvincing in most cases; there are a few rare exceptions. I think this is one of them. Brecht had theNot and I have this long-running argument about translations. In nearly every case, I think it's better to read the original, even if my knowledge of the source language isn't particularly good: it means I'm hearing what the author actually said, as opposed to what the translator thought they said. Not disagrees, but I find her arguments unconvincing.

Or, to be more exact, I find her arguments unconvincing in most cases; there are a few rare exceptions. I think this is one of them. Brecht had the wonderful idea of retelling the story of Hitler's rise to power as a mock-Shakespearian tragedy, in the style of Richard III, about a Chicago gangster who takes over the city's vegetable trade. It works extremely well, and the play has huge energy and inventiveness; it's an absolutely first-rate black comedy.

Having just read both the German original and the brilliant translation I found here, it seems to me that that the translation is better. It's possible that this is due to my indifferent German - though, just before, I read Der gute Mensch von Sezuan and greatly enjoyed it. I liked the German version of Arturo Ui too, but it seemed to me that Brecht, genius though he may be, was trying to do something that was basically impossible.

The humour of the play derives from the mixing of several different registers, of which the most important are Shakespeare's magnificent blank verse and the flat, vulgar speech of the Chicago underworld; even if these can be transposed to German (and Brecht gives it his best shot), they are essentially English in their nature. There are other linguistic jokes as well, including substantial borrowings from Faust, and these passages don't work so well in translation. But the core of the play is the contrast between the Bard and Al Capone, and it's hardly surprising that they achieve their full potential in English.

Enough generalities; take a look at some of the passages I liked most, and judge for yourself. To start, a speech by Ui, who's just initiated his hostile takeover of the cauliflower business:

Well, what to do, you must be wondering.So listen to me careful. First things first.The way you're acting just ain't good enough,Hoping that all will turn out hunky-dory,Grinding your lazy bums behind the counterAnd fainting every time you see a thug.You're disunited, splintered and withoutSome Big White Chief to give you firm protection.So first comes unity. Then sacrifice.

A stream of invective from a woman who's just seen her husband killed before her eyes by Ui's thugs:

You scum, you monster, oh, you crock of shit!No, even shit would shudder seeing youAnd if you touched it, cry out, Let me wash!Whoever touches Ui is defiled!You louse of all the lice! And everyoneWill let him get away with it! You there,They're hacking us to bloody pieces! Help!It's Ui, Ui, Ui and the rest!Where are you? Help! Will no one stop this pest?

A pathetic piece of equivocation from Betty, who's foolish enough to think she can negotiate with Ui:

Clark has told meThat Ui's youthful revels are now ended.- The best of us have gone through Sturm und Drang -He's sown his wild oats, so to speak and shownHis manner and his grammar much improved:He hasn't murdered anyone for weeks.Though if you do persist, attacking him,You might revive his baser instincts yet.And put yourself in jeopardy, Ignatius.But if you keep your mouth shut, they'll be nice.

And, finally, the chilling conclusion to the play:

The actor who plays ARTURO UI comes forward and takes off his moustache to speak the epilogue.

If we could learn to look instead of gawking,We'd see the horror in the heart of farce,If only we could act instead of talking,We wouldn't always end up on our arse.This was the thing that nearly had us mastered;Don't yet rejoice in his defeat, you men!Although the world stood up and stopped the bastard,The bitch that bore him is in heat again.

Check out this play if you've got nothing better to do over the weekend; it only takes a couple of hours to read. And, oh yes, it's just possible you may find some vague resonances with things that are happening in the world right now. If you're that way inclined....more

I read this close on the heals of a biography of Hitler and found that Brecht did a great job using this parable to show how the rise of Hitler came about.

The epilogue is chilling:

Therefore learn how to see and not to gape.To act instead of talking all day long.The world was almost won by such an ape!The nations put him where his kind belong.But don't rejoice too soon at your escape - The womb he crawled from is still going strong.

I read this because I was obliged to, but I can tell I loved Brecht's parallelism. Having read various biographies of Hitler, this was supposed to be no different, but instead this was definitely my favourite. It must have been the wit, the characters, even the catchy setting or the language used. My personal favourite bit is when Ernesto Roma tells him (read it in Albanian so the following is my adaption) "Step on the world, but not on your same feet", inferring Ui's betrayal to him, as part ofI read this because I was obliged to, but I can tell I loved Brecht's parallelism. Having read various biographies of Hitler, this was supposed to be no different, but instead this was definitely my favourite. It must have been the wit, the characters, even the catchy setting or the language used. My personal favourite bit is when Ernesto Roma tells him (read it in Albanian so the following is my adaption) "Step on the world, but not on your same feet", inferring Ui's betrayal to him, as part of his own clique since the very beginning.

I liked how every character fitted perfectly into the real-life person's shoes and how it was so easy to make the whole book out. Not engaging, nor complicated, neither boring or clustered with details. This is what I will, from now on, suggest to everyone wanting to learn Hitler's rise in no time at all! Nice epilogue and very actual too!...more

Found it very hard to get into initially, I think it would be a lot easier in performance. It would function perfectly well on its own terms without any knowledge of what it is representing (Hitlet's rise), which I think is part of good theatrical allegory or metaphor.

Brecht's comedic look at how Hitler came to rise. Hitler is in the form of Arturo Ui, a man who claims to be "for the people," especially those in the cauliflower trade. Ui does bad things and allows bad things to happen, but people doubt it could be him because he is interested in protecting "The common man."

It is a serious look into what can happen if people don't learn their history.

Spoiler alert: I will not give you away the finale, the author does. He thinks the Ascension can be stopped. But since I did not enjoy what I heard of the play, I am likely to write about anything except Brecht.There have been a small series of accidents, books that I did not enjoy.With Zhivago and Prometheus Bound, there is he Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.Yes, the message is worthy and the title, from whereThe Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertold BrechtDer aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui

Spoiler alert: I will not give you away the finale, the author does. He thinks the Ascension can be stopped. But since I did not enjoy what I heard of the play, I am likely to write about anything except Brecht.There have been a small series of accidents, books that I did not enjoy.With Zhivago and Prometheus Bound, there is he Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.Yes, the message is worthy and the title, from where I stand says it all.There is even is no point in reading beyond it.I am just kidding, but I may have reached the limit of my comprehension, number of authors I can grasp and the time limit.An impulse to resist Nazis is noble and especially so if we consider that this play was written in 1941, if I remember correctly.The author was brave and could face retribution, even in the form of death.On the other hand, it seems somewhat hollow and pointless, for during so many years Hitler could not be stopped.

In other words, the play is plain wrong.Message and all: Arturo Ui aka Hitler cannot be stopped, resisted – without millions of people dead and countless wounded and affected by his war.Another thing I hate about Nazism is the fact that somehow it gets all the attention.It is ok to be communist or extreme left in Europe and forbidden to be a Nazi.While I understand the last part, I do not get the first.The communists, Stalin and the bunch have been much bigger killers than Hitler.Mao may have been the killer Supreme, making the Chinese starve to death for his crazy, evil “ideals”.He made his subjects kill the sparrows, which had devoured the other crop eaters and it all ended in catastrophe. How stupid and ferocious these people could be.Another thing that I did not like about Arturo Ui was the silly introduction of cauliflower.Instead of mentioning Krupp, as an engine, a stimulus for the rise of the Third Reich, Brecht introduces …cauliflower merchants.I can understand that he could not give the proper names and here there is a subtle irony, but I just find it risible and bringing it into a note that I do not like. It is subjective and reflective a lack of understanding, probably a proper training and more research on the subject.You may enjoy it. I did not....more

Most of my favorite Brecht plays are those written while he was in a self-imposed exile from Germany following Hitler’s rise to Chancellor (1933), including The Life of Galileo, The Good Person of Szechwan, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Visions of Simone Marchard, and this play.

The dynamic time period, and his life in exile, seemed to focus Brecht and, in his better plays of this period, limited his odd theories about socialism (as in The Threepenny Opera). In this time of unprecedented strifMost of my favorite Brecht plays are those written while he was in a self-imposed exile from Germany following Hitler’s rise to Chancellor (1933), including The Life of Galileo, The Good Person of Szechwan, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Visions of Simone Marchard, and this play.

The dynamic time period, and his life in exile, seemed to focus Brecht and, in his better plays of this period, limited his odd theories about socialism (as in The Threepenny Opera). In this time of unprecedented strife and world chaos, his core principles came forward.

The play in question presents the rise of Hitler as a Chicago gangster. This is an interesting idea. The play is good, and I’m sure entertaining to watch. Some of today’s top actors have performed in it over the past several decades, including Christopher Plummer, Steve Buscemi, Al Pacino, etc

But I wonder if it is an idea for a time – i.e., as Hitler rose to power. But afterward? Today? Now that we know the rise – and fall – of Hitler, does the “parable” seem as relevant? As a satire of the moment (1930s), does it carry the same weight and message today?

I think it would be better as a gangster story that resembled Hitler’s rise, rather than the rise of Hitler told as a gangster tale. Additionally, the blank verse is prosaic. If written without line breaks, I wouldn’t recognize it as poetry. That could be the translation, though. It doesn't achieve the great sweep and violence of Elizabethan theatre that he was trying to capture.

But that said, it is an entertaining read. There are other Brecht plays I would recommend first, but for a quick read (or an enjoyable evening in the theatre) you won’t regret this. ...more

Bertolt Brecht was a genius. This play is fantastic, I couldn't talk about all the reasons why I think this because there are just too many. To list a few, the parallels between the play and the rise of Hitler in the Weimar Republic are masterfully presented and very true to real historical events. All Brecht's qualities like spass, the alienation effect, demonstration of characters and presentation to spectators are all present here. But the best thing about it is what the title suggests, ArturBertolt Brecht was a genius. This play is fantastic, I couldn't talk about all the reasons why I think this because there are just too many. To list a few, the parallels between the play and the rise of Hitler in the Weimar Republic are masterfully presented and very true to real historical events. All Brecht's qualities like spass, the alienation effect, demonstration of characters and presentation to spectators are all present here. But the best thing about it is what the title suggests, Arturo Ui's rise to power is SO resistible! He isn't initially in power or even liked; at literally every point in his rise, if ONE person would just stand against him then he would never have made it to where he ends up at the end of the play. The whole thing is so fragile and is amazing to watch. It's a masterpiece of theatre written by a master of Epic Theatre. ...more

I've never read any Brecht before, and he takes a little getting used to, if this is anything to go by.

A funny; both ha-ha and odd, parody of Hitler's rise to power, and more importantly the circumstances that allowed it, using an Al Capone stand in taking over the cauliflower business in Chicago.

Chilling, mechanical, smart, emotionally distancing, controlled, didactic, selective, political...there is a lot going on, even before noting that the play has Shakespeare references galore and is wriI've never read any Brecht before, and he takes a little getting used to, if this is anything to go by.

A funny; both ha-ha and odd, parody of Hitler's rise to power, and more importantly the circumstances that allowed it, using an Al Capone stand in taking over the cauliflower business in Chicago.

Chilling, mechanical, smart, emotionally distancing, controlled, didactic, selective, political...there is a lot going on, even before noting that the play has Shakespeare references galore and is written blank verse. Yet it is somehow simplistic too and perhaps to its credit.

The epilogue is, I believe, famous and understandably so. It is a chilling and sadly relevant reminder of how easy it is to produce both the circumstances and monsters to drag us all to hell again.

For a book that I have to read for class it was very enjoyable. The idea of taking something something as huge as the nazi's rise to power and placing it in a setting of something so dull as the power of cauliflower selling. I particularly loved the epilogue "But do not rejoice too soon at your escape — The womb he crawled from is still going strong."

This play was AMAZING. It hit the feels (as all the fledglings are saying nowadays).

So many times during this book I was in utter shock and disbelief that such things could take place, and had to keep reminding myself it was just a play.... and then I remembered this was an interpretation of REAL LIFE. These horrific things actually happened, and they can happen at any time again if we are not careful.

The epilogue just reminds us that this could happen to anyone. Anyone has the ability to becoThis play was AMAZING. It hit the feels (as all the fledglings are saying nowadays).

So many times during this book I was in utter shock and disbelief that such things could take place, and had to keep reminding myself it was just a play.... and then I remembered this was an interpretation of REAL LIFE. These horrific things actually happened, and they can happen at any time again if we are not careful.

The epilogue just reminds us that this could happen to anyone. Anyone has the ability to become a psycho killer. Love everybody guys.

And if you see a sulking artist on the street, angry at the world for not understanding his gift, buy a few paintings. You could save millions....more

Bertolt Brecht (born Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht) was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director. A seminal theatre practitioner of the twentieth century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the Berliner Ensemble—the post-war theatre company operated by Brecht aBertolt Brecht (born Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht) was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director. A seminal theatre practitioner of the twentieth century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the Berliner Ensemble—the post-war theatre company operated by Brecht and his wife and long-time collaborator, the actress Helene Weigel—with its internationally acclaimed productions.

From his late twenties Brecht remained a life-long committed Marxist who, in developing the combined theory and practice of his 'epic theatre', synthesized and extended the experiments of Piscator and Meyerhold to explore the theatre as a forum for political ideas and the creation of a critical aesthetics of dialectical materialism. Brecht's modernist concern with drama-as-a-medium led to his refinement of the 'epic form' of the drama (which constitutes that medium's rendering of 'autonomization' or the 'non-organic work of art'—related in kind to the strategy of divergent chapters in Joyce's novel Ulysses, to Eisenstein's evolution of a constructivist 'montage' in the cinema, and to Picasso's introduction of cubist 'collage' in the visual arts). In contrast to many other avant-garde approaches, however, Brecht had no desire to destroy art as an institution; rather, he hoped to 're-function' the apparatus of theatrical production to a new social use. In this regard he was a vital participant in the aesthetic debates of his era—particularly over the 'high art/popular culture' dichotomy—vying with the likes of Adorno, Lukács, Bloch, and developing a close friendship with Benjamin. Brechtian theatre articulated popular themes and forms with avant-garde formal experimentation to create a modernist realism that stood in sharp contrast both to its psychological and socialist varieties. "Brecht's work is the most important and original in European drama since Ibsen and Strindberg," Raymond Williams argues, while Peter Bürger insists that he is "the most important materialist writer of our time."

As Jameson among others has stressed, "Brecht is also ‘Brecht’"—collective and collaborative working methods were inherent to his approach. This 'Brecht' was a collective subject that "certainly seemed to have a distinctive style (the one we now call 'Brechtian') but was no longer personal in the bourgeois or individualistic sense." During the course of his career, Brecht sustained many long-lasting creative relationships with other writers, composers, scenographers, directors, dramaturgs and actors; the list includes: Elisabeth Hauptmann, Margarete Steffin, Ruth Berlau, Slatan Dudow, Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler, Paul Dessau, Caspar Neher, Teo Otto, Karl von Appen, Ernst Busch, Lotte Lenya, Peter Lorre, Therese Giehse, Angelika Hurwicz, and Helene Weigel herself. This is "theatre as collective experiment [...] as something radically different from theatre as expression or as experience."

There are few areas of modern theatrical culture that have not felt the impact or influence of Brecht's ideas and practices; dramatists and directors in whom one may trace a clear Brechtian legacy include: Dario Fo, Augusto Boal, Joan Littlewood, Peter Brook, Peter Weiss, Heiner Müller, Pina Bausch, Tony Kushner and Caryl Churchill. In addition to the theatre, Brechtian theories and techniques have exerted considerable sway over certain strands of film theory and cinematic practice; Brecht's influence may be detected in the films of Joseph Losey, Jean-Luc Godard, Lindsay Anderson, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Nagisa Oshima, Ritwik Ghatak, Lars von Trier, Jan Bucquoy and Hal Hartley.

“If we could learn to look instead of gawking,We'd see the horror in the heart of farce,If only we could act instead of talking,We wouldn't always end up on our arse.This was the thing that nearly had us mastered;Don't yet rejoice in his defeat, you men!Although the world stood up and stopped the bastard,The bitch that bore him is in heat again.”
—
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“Therefore learn how to see and not to gape.To act instead of talking all day long.The world was almost won by such an ape!The nations put him where his kind belong.But don't rejoice too soon at your escape -The womb he crawled from is still going strong.”
—
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